ABSTRACT
This chapter has described a perceived shift in domestic football fandom in Kenya from ethnic identity boundedness to an open social identification with respect to Gor Mahia Football Club. We argue that the said shift has occurred, in part, due to the global trends of postfandom but also, in the case of Gor Mahia, due to one significant element of the anthropology of social identification in the Luo community that is known as Nyadhi. This is characterized by an exhibitionist and flamboyant presentation of the self in the presence of others. This cultural practice found its way on the Gor Mahia fandom from the beginning but became more popular when social transformation was brought about by changing local politics and global sport media. The study employs relevant ethnographic techniques to engage with the fandom, and one of its major findings is that the Gor Mahia football fandom has become a pan-ethnic phenomenon in Kenya and consequently, in one sense, de-linked football fandom from perceived ethnocentric social identification.
